Campaign To Repeal Hateful Act

Here is a copy of letter sent to all Members of Congress, Houseand Senate, lobbying them to state their support for repealingthe anti-Catholic sections of the British Act of Settlement,1701.

We urge all concerned Americans to lobby their Senators andRepresentatives. After all, what decent American could possiblydefend this anachronistic and sectarian law?

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The Honorable ___________U.S. SenateWashington, DC. 20510

September 18, 2007

Dear Senator_________-,

This letter — which asks you to state your position on repealingthe anti-Catholic sections of the British Act of Settlement of1701– has overwhelmingly support among Irish-Americans.

Furthermore, it is supported by the main Irish organizations thathave been working for over the years for equality, justice andpeace in Northern Ireland.

The sectarian and anti-Catholic Act of Settlement 1701, which isstill law today, decrees that only a Protestant can succeed tothe British throne and that if the Monarch becomes a Catholic, ormarries a Catholic, he/she forfeits the Throne and “the peopleare absolved from their allegiance”.

While this absurdly anachronistic law may mean little to theaverage Englishman in the street, it has always been of theutmost importance to Protestant/Unionist/Orange extremists inNorthern Ireland. It provides the ideological and philosophicalunderpinnings for their bigotry and sectarianism. For you see,the spurious but deadly logic goes, if a Catholic by law can’tget the top job, then Catholics are inferior to Protestants,therefore it’s okay to discriminate against them.

Imagine had there been a provision in the US Constitutionforbidding an African-American being president, or forbidding thepresident to marry a black personŠ imagine how that would havestoked the flames of racism and the sick ideology of whitesupremacy.

Tony Blair, who has done so much good work for justice and peacein Northern Ireland, declared the Act was ” plainlydiscriminatory”

Furthermore, an increasing number of people in Britain itself areshamed and embarrassed by this archaic and anti-Catholic law —which is clearly incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998 —and are demanding its repeal.

Here is a partial list: the British Attorney General, more than150 MPs, the Cardinal of Scotland, the Cardinal of England andthe Guardian Newspaper.

We now ask you to join this growing list of concerned people inthe US, Britain and Ireland, by declaring your support forrepealing the sectarian and anti-Catholic sections of the Act ofSettlement, which fans the fires of religious bigotry in NorthernIreland.

Please find enclosed our ” Roll Call on Act of Settlement, 1701″,which polls all Members of the House and Senate on whether theyare for or against Repeal. (A similar poll will be sent toPresidential Candidates and others seeking public office). Yourresponse, or lack thereof, will be disseminated among the Irish-American community, which according to the last US census is over30 million.

I join the growing number of leaders of both Church and State inBritain, Ireland and the United States in calling for the repealof the sectarian and anti-Catholic sections of the Act ofSettlement, 1701.

And I pledge to Irish-Americans to continue supporting the Irishpeace-process, based on nonviolence, equality, justice and peacein Northern Ireland.